Many closing systems with closing accessories are known to the expert. The German patent document DE 199 04 663 A1 discloses a motor vehicle door lock which comprises an electrical closing accessory drive and an electrical opening accessory drive. In this design the lock comprises a catch and a pawl keeping the catch in the main notch position and the pre-notch position. The accessory closing drive is actuated after the lock catch has reached a pre-closing position and moves this catch by motor action into the main closing position.
According to said state of the art, the opening accessory drive is actuated when the pawl must be moved out of the latch's main notch position or pre-notch position. The said accessory drives consist of a drive motor and of a gear unit, both being configured in the immediate vicinity of the lock. One of the substantial drawbacks incurred in this design is that the space available for it in the vicinity of the mechanical lock is strongly restricted on account of the presence of a plurality of operational elements such as accessory motors etc. The purpose of the present invention is palliation.
Accordingly the objective of the present invention is to create a motor vehicle door or flap closing system circumventing the above drawbacks and providing in particular a closing system of simple design and offering economy of installation and compactness. Moreover the user shall be provided with a comfortable and reliable closing system to open and close the motor vehicle door and to secure and disengage the closing system.
The present invention provides that the door handle comprises a handle support configured inside the side away from the grip element and to affix the grip element to the door. The handle support is not visible to the user, being mounted in the car's door body, and being made in one illustrative embodiment of the invention of metal or plastic. The plastic illustrative may be a composite material. In another alternative of the present invention the said handle support may be a fiber-reinforced composite material, for instance of fibers made of glass and/or of carbon and/or aramide fibers imbedded in plastic. The particular advantage attained thereby is that the fiber-reinforced handle support offers high strength at low weight. One significant advantage of the present invention that the opening motor and/or the closing motor as well as the centralized locking motor are mounted on said handle support. The opening motor and/or the closing motor as well as the centralized locking motor are connected directly, or indirectly by means of at least one force transmitting element, to the lock. By moving the centralized locking motor as well as the accessory motors into the region of the door handle, additional space is made available for further elements. Because of the reduced number of components, the mechanical lock is substantially more compact and simpler, whereby the economy of installing the lock of the invention in the motor vehicle door is substantially increased. The accessory motors as well as the centralized locking motor may be connected for instance by a common force transmitting element to the lock. Another embodiment mode of the invention allows fitting each motor with its own force transmitting element to the lock. Such a force transmitting element preferably shall be a Bowden cable which is easily emplaced and affixed regardless of space restrictions. Obviously alternative force transmitting elements such as linkages also are applicable.
In one advantageous embodiment mode of the present invention, the closing element, the opening motor and the closing motor may be integrated into one motor unit. As a result the lock's opening and closing accessories are solely provided from one common motor unit. In order to keep low the costs of installing the closing system, the centralized locking motor and/or the opening motor and/or the closing motor appropriately are received in a single housing. The said motors are combined in this embodiment of the invention in one modular unit, allowing substantially simplifying the integration of the closing system into the motor vehicle door.
The accessory motors as well as the centralized locking motor are affixed in geometrically (positively) or frictionally locking or in fused manner to the handle support. Illustratively screw, weld connections, in particular laser welding, clamping or snug-fit connections are applicable. Advantageously furthermore the housing receiving the motors also may be affixed by means of the just cited connections.
The control unit is advantageously connected electrically to the closing motor and/or opening motor. Obviously a wireless connection for instance by radio or infrared is also conceivable in this respect. The control unit may be a centralized motor control unit which communicates with both the centralized locking motor and the accessory motors. It may be appropriate moreover to make use of an additional control for the closing system besides the centralized motor control unit.
In an alternative embodiment mode, the control unit also may be affixed to the door handle support. In this case the control unit also may be received in the said housing.
Appropriately the door handle comprises a keyless closing-system activation sensor in the form of a contact and/or proximity detector communicating with the control unit. Besides being connected electrically in physical manner, obviously the sensor and control unit also may be connected in wireless manner. Illustratively the user may use his/her hand in proximity to or by touching (with or without pressure) the grip element to activate the said sensor, to move the closing system into or out of the secured position. By means of such activation, the sensor can entail immediate securing or disengaging the closing system. Obviously also first a security check may have to be satisfied to find out whether said user is authorized for such vehicle securing or disengaging actions. Illustratively such checking devices are described in the German patent documents DE 103 31 440 A1 or DE 196 17 038 C2. The sensor may be capacitive, in which case the activation distance is smaller than 30 cm, preferably less than 1 cm. This deliberate selection of a small activation distance makes sure that the capacitive sensor can be activated only by deliberately moving the user's hand into the close vicinity of the sensor.
The sensor configured within the grip element may be piezoelectric, and consequently its activation takes place by touching the grip element in the zone of the piezoelectric sensor. In this embodiment mode the piezoelectric sensor is configured directly at the side of the handle away from the door. Already minute tension, pressure or thrust suffice to secure or disengage the closing system. Obviously other kinds of sensor may be used too for this application, for instance a Hall effect generator.
The closing system relates to a door handle which illustratively may be a folding handle, a pullout handle or a revolver grip. The particular grip element which requires manual displacement to effect door opening may be designed in one embodiment mode as being pivotable about a pivot axis, the door handle being fitted with an inner connection element configured at its free end to said pivot axis. Manually displacing and/or rotating the grip element opens the mechanical lock of the closing system by means of a force transmitting element provided that said centralized locking motor did previously move the closing system into the disengaged position.
In another alternative embodiment mode of the invention, the centrally locking motor is connected to a coupling which said motor can be moved into a coupled and a decoupled state and which can be operationally connected to the lock by an adjustment device. The closing system is secured in the coupling's decoupled state and is disengaged when said coupling is coupled. The displaceable grip element is connected through a force transmitting element to said coupling. The displacement impulse triggered by the motion of the grip element when taking place in the coupled state is transmitted through the force transmitting element to said coupling, In the coupled state this coupling transmits said displacement pulse to the adjustment device that correspondingly acts on the lock. There is no transmission of the displacement impulse in the decoupled state. The lock will be secure.
Besides offering the option of manually opening the motor vehicle door, the closing system of the invention alternatively also relates to door handles that do not respond to a displacement or pivoting of the grip element to open the door, whether by ignoring such phenomena or not being designed for them in the first place. In that case the grip elements are mounted rigidly and firmly to the door, the door handle being fitted with actuation surfaces that need only be touched by the user or that require the user to approach within a given distance to start the opening procedure.
Advantageously the door handle comprises an emergency cylinder. In a preferred embodiment mode, this cylinder is affixed to the handle support. In case of electronics malfunction (for instance inoperative ID detector), the vehicle may be opened by means of this emergency cylinder. The emergency key is inserted into a core of the emergency cylinder and by operating the key is moved from a first position into a disengaged or secure rotational position. Illustratively the cylinder core in its rest position may be kept in its first position by a pulse drive spring. The rotational impulse may be transmitted by the coupling's force transmission elements to allow securing and/or disengaging the lock.
In a further alternative embodiment mode of the invention, the centralized locking motor is configured in the zone of the emergency cylinder to which it is linked. Key rotation can be directly communicated to the centralized locking motor which then undertakes a corresponding actuation of the mechanical lock or at the coupling. Configuring the centralized locking motor in the immediate vicinity of the emergency cylinder was found to be eminently advantageous. Preferably the closing motor and the opening motor are affixed at the door handle side opposite the centralized locking motor.
Further advantages, features and particulars of the present invention are discussed in the description below which describes in detail several illustrative embodiment modes of the invention in relation to the appended drawings. The features cited in the claims and the description may be construed being inventive per se or in arbitrary combinations.